The rantings of a teacher who retired from the classroom but not from education.

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Memo_042

No commentary from me this time--enjoyit all on your own.

The
2nd marking period of this term will end soon.I would like remind everyone of the
following:

1.Please use comment 10 if you teach a course which terminates
in the Regents exam, particularly if a student is boarder-line passing/failing.
If you have seniors in trig, you can give them a grade of 55 and comment
10.This way, you have the flexibility
to change the grade to a passing grade once the seniors sit for the Regents
exam. Please try to give them a grade of 65 or CR when they sit for the Regents
exam.

2.A student should not be given a passing grade in June if
he/she has more than 15 absences for the entire term.Therefore, if a student has been absent (not
excused absences) from your class more than ten times during the first and second
marking period, he or she is to receive a grade no higher than 60.You can always give the student his/her true
average at the end if the cutting stops.

3.The difference between 55 and 60 is that a grade of 55 may take
the student out of the sequence and a grade of 60 now promotes the student into
the next level math class. A grade of 55 puts a student in summer school. In
either case, you should use the comment “10” for courses that terminate in the Regents
exam. We are doing the programming and you need to decide which grade will make
the student work harder.

4.Use your judgment when you intend to give a grade higher
than 90 in a regular class or lower than 88 in an honor class.It promotes/removes students from regular to
honor and vice versa.I do not want to
spend time arguing with a student as to why we are not putting him/her in an
honor class even though you give them the honor grade. Students in ME44/R/MG22R
will not be promoted into honors.

5.Please make sure you give at least one comment to each
student.You must give a comment to any
student whose grade is lower than 65.Please take this opportunity to communicate with parents.

6.Please make sure you contact the parents of all the students
who failed this past marking period.The
best way is for you to make a phone call and log the phone call.If you cannot reach the parents, please send
a citizenship report.

7.For courses that terminate in the Regents exam in June - Please
make sure the grades you give your students are similar to what they will get
on the final exam and Regents exam.You
won’t be right all the time, but you should come close to the majority of your
students.A student with a grade of 90
or above in the course should do a great deal better than an 84 on the Regents
exam.

8.ME22 students who receive a grade of 65 to 70 iff when they
pass the Regents exam should be programmed for ME43/ME44. Others should either
go to MG21R or MG22. If you feel strongly that a student should go from ME22 to
ME43, please start talking and convincing the students now.

9.Students in ME44 who receive grades lower than 55 is an
indication that they should be programmed for ME41 next year.

If
you can think of anything that I left out, please let me know.Please try to give more realistic grades
since we will use your grades as commendations for next term’s math class.Please make sure you check the Regents scores
before you recommend a student for an honor class or an elective.